About this artwork

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Demolished captures the destruction of tower blocks in three different housing estates in Hackney, east London, between 1993 and 1995. According to Whiteread, this work is ‘something that is going to be completely forgotten... the detritus of our culture’.During the Thatcher era, Whiteread was particularly concerned by the social and economic changes introduced by the Conservative party, and their impact on homeless people in London. This work operates as a metaphor for neglect and disappearance, commemorating what no longer exists.